An aerial digital camera can be mounted on an aircraft, satellite or other vehicle to record images of distant objects. The forward motion of the vehicle at the time of image exposure leads to a blurring (dragging) of the recorded image. The blurring increases with exposure time, speed of the vehicle relative to the object and inversely with distance of the camera from the object. Forward motion compensation (FMC) is applied to compensate for the forward movement of the vehicle in order to reduce or eliminate blur from the recorded images. Forward motion compensation can be achieved by moving an image sensor of the aerial digital camera relative to a lens of the camera during exposure image.
Conventional cameras and control methods of cameras have been found insufficient in achieving a desired accuracy of motion compensation.